GB1315679A - Trimming of the butt ends of vegetables - Google Patents

Abstract

1315679 Trimming Brussels sprouts G W RICHARDSON 30 Sept 1971 [28 July 1970] 36407/70 Heading A4C [Also in Division B8] Apparatus for trimming the butt ends of Brussels sprouts or like vegetables comprises an apertured conveyer 11, Fig.2, on which the sprouts are positioned with their butt ends protruding through the apertures 38, means 36 arranged to shear the butt ends extending from said apertures and means 41 for receiving the trimmed sprouts from the conveyer. The sprouts are positioned on the conveyer by a soft resilient nipping member 18 which co-operates with a pair of mutually spaced yieldable side walls 24, Fig. 4, to form a yieldable channel into which sprouts are guided by suitable means, for example a feed channel 26 and a rotatable pocketed drum 27. The conveyer is moved adjacent the nipping member at substantially the same linear speed as that of the surface of the nipping member so as to allow the butt ends of the sprouts to be pressed into and through apertures in the conveyer. The shearing knife 36 may be spaced some distance from the nipping member so that the orientation of the sprouts may be checked, and above the shearing knife may be arranged a rotatable pressure member 33, having a surface of soft resilient material, driven at a peripheral speed equal to the linear speed of the conveyer, the pressure member being adapted to press against the sprouts as the butts are sheared off. There may be a plurality of nipping members, with a corresponding number of pairs of inclined side walls 24, guiding means and, associated with each nipping member a line of apertures on the conveyer. The nipping member may be in the form of an endless belt 18, arranged around two rollers 19 and having a V-shaped groove 23 on its outer surface. The conveyer may be formed from a plurality of slats 12 mounted on endless chains 13, and each of the apertures 38 may be countersunk at an angle appropriate to the shape of a sprout and to such a depth that the upper edge of each countersunk aperture of each row touches the upper edge of the preceding and succeeding apertures. A brush 42 serves to clear the conveyer and remove any sprouts which do not fall on to the delivery shoot 41; the sheared butt ends fall into a channel 43 containing an auger for delivery to a waste container. The nipping member 18 and pressure member surface may be formed from cellular rubber, and the side walls 24 may be of spring steel.